A380 crosswind landing fun.

[Eric Janson]

I'm going to be onboard positioning home in a few days - not looking forward to it. Already had my share of 'experiences' with Emirates over the last few years.

Would be curious to hear the details. It is not your airline so no repurcussions. What were your 'Experiences' as a passenger over the last few years?

Numerous hard landings including one where the aircraft pitch attitude didn't change from 100' to touchdown. That one was really bad.

2 go-arounds in row followed by a diversion and subsequent flight cancellation. It was the only aircraft that diverted. It was windy but I've operated out of the same airport under much worse conditions. I took the train home. No compensation or refund of my train ticket.

Passenger collapsing at top of descent and subsequently passing away.

Packs forgotten after take-off until climbing through 6000'.

Aircraft made two large roll movements for no apparent reason - first to the right and then to the left No turbulence.

Cabin service is normally mediocre with uninterested crew who don't smile. On several flights they missed serving our section entirely. Not unusual for them to miss a section with coffee and tea.

There have been flights with an exceptional cabin crew but that's happened twice in about 30 flights.

The product no longer matches the advertising (hype). It's all going downhill.

The Middle East section of PPRuNe has several ongoing threads where EK Pilots comment on the situation at the Airline. Quite an eye opener into the company 'culture'.

[crazyaviator]

Airbus design idiocies are legion. To add to the general derision of yaw control, here is one about the control of roll

.
Yep, changing control law ( and roll effectiveness by 50% ) by the touch of the WOW switch,,,, sounds like solid engineering to me !

[Eric Janson]

Airbus design idiocies are legion. To add to the general derision of yaw control, here is one about the control of roll.

http://avherald.com/h?article=42826d3a

Again this incident has nothing to with the aircraft - it is once again Pilot mishandling of a crosswind landing.

I've operated the A320 in some pretty terrible conditions without hitting a wingtip.

During a Spring storm there were two nights in a row where the crew told me afterwards they thought they were going to die - moderate mechanical turbulence on approach made things interesting.

Aileron control isn't an issue and the changeover from direct to normal law is transparent to the pilot. You simply don't get sudden large changes in roll.

It's obvious some of you know very little about airbus fly-by-wire.

[NorOntair]

It's obvious some of you know very little about airbus fly-by-wire.

Enough to fly the 330... which is also enough to tell you it's shit.

[confusedalot]

Never flew an Airbus but I always wanted to try it out at least.

Say it ain't so, from a curious boeing guy.

[Eric Janson]

Enough to fly the 330... which is also enough to tell you it's shit.

I always enjoyed flying the A330 - it's a very capable aircraft.

Been making my living flying airbus fbw aircraft for 12 years. They've always got my passengers and myself from A to B safely.

The cockpit ergonomics are better than any of the Boeing aircraft I've flown and the cockpit noise levels are lower. Seats are much more comfortable as well. I had a friend give me a 787 cockpit tour recently - that does look very nice.

My personal favorite is the A340-500.

[pelmet]

Enough to fly the 330... which is also enough to tell you it's shit.

I always enjoyed flying the A330 - it's a very capable aircraft.

Been making my living flying airbus fbw aircraft for 12 years. They've always got my passengers and myself from A to B safely.

The cockpit ergonomics are better than any of the Boeing aircraft I've flown and the cockpit noise levels are lower. Seats are much more comfortable as well. I had a friend give me a 787 cockpit tour recently - that does look very nice.

My personal favorite is the A340-500.

So what are your chances of transferring to the A380. It would be nice to have someone here with direct knowledge.

[Victory]

The thought of pilot-less airliners is unfathomable to many of us but essentially that era is already here. When you tell this aircraft to do something it doesn't just do it. It checks that what you want to do is ok then does it. It even modifies your request a bit. Tweaks it to be better than what you requested. After all it knows what you are trying to do and it can do it better than you. You are no longer the pilot of that aircraft.

[complexintentions]

No.

Not correct for Boeing's FBW logic, and neither apparently, Airbus either. In the landing phase control is transparent (other than flight envelope protections built in at margins that aren't encroached upon in any remotely normal landing).

Please read Eric's posts again.

And Emirates is wel on their way to becoming Gulf Air 2.0. Although I found the onboard service to be amazing, even since leaving, but I have access to F where the FA to pax ratio is a little different...

[ZBBYLW]

I've flown with a handful of people that say the airbus is crap in a gusty crosswind or any crosswind. These same people if you look at what they are doing to the side stick is incredible. They are making HUGE corrections left and right, up and down and some large portion of the aircraft's "instability" is caused by their pilot induced ossolation.

Then they will say something about how they hate the airbus.

Even in extremely gusty winds in YYT or BDA or anywhere with any significant wind I've found the bus to be very capable. It's a very easy airplane to land on the centreline with the nose straight, on the into wind wheel. Sometimes it's smoother then others but I've never understood the complaints, until I watched what control inputs people are doing.

My 2 cents.

[Eric Janson]

So what are your chances of transferring to the A380. It would be nice to have someone here with direct knowledge.

My company is adding 2 of them next year - no info yet on how they will be crewed.

[ccd]

Incredible and scaring. but the passengers can feel that shacking?

I have never flew on a A-380

[crazyaviator]

Put down the bottle CCD, down with the bottle,,,,

[CpnCrunch]

I guess the landing gear is built to handle a lot of abuse, like a cessna.

Does the sidestick make it easier to over-control?

[Eric Janson]

Does the sidestick make it easier to over-control?

Yes - especially in roll.

Roll is a 'rate' demand (when you give a roll input you are asking for X degrees/second roll rate which stops when the sidestick returns to the neutral position).

You can set up a positive feedback loop where larger and larger inputs are given.

The term is PIO (Pilot Induced Oscillation) which can happen on any aircraft.

Full scale deflection is not that much movement so if giving large inputs you can reach the stops very quickly. The secret is to use the sidestick as little as possible and make small corrections.